CHARLESTON — CHARLESTON — Emotions exploded on both sides of the issue Friday before the House handily approved a bill that makes ultrasound imaging available to women seeking abortions as additional information in helping decide about undergoing the operation.

Opponents denounced it as demeaning to women, while supporters saw it as another opportunity to provide a patient with more information in making one of life’s more challenging decisions.

“I cannot accept legislation that punishes, is patronizing, is insulting and is offensive,” declared Delegate Bonnie Brown, D-Kanawha, one of the more vocal opponents.

“Any legislation that tells women that we are too stupid to make up our minds and make our own decisions, I can never support.”

After an hour-long debate, the measure cleared on an 80-17 tally, providing West Virginians for Life a victory. Gov. Joe Manchin is likely to sign the bill once the Senate acts on a House amendment.

The bill would require a doctor to provide access to any ultrasound, but only if the woman asks to see it. And the information could be provided in paper form or online. A requirement installed by the House obligates the woman to sign a paper, certifying she received the information, as a means of protecting the doctor from both litigation and action by the medical board.

A supporter, Delegate Dave Walker, D-Clay, told of how he followed the biblical instruction to anoint with oil and pray over the afflicted after a sister-in-law was told by a doctor she needed to abort her doomed child.

“I put it in God’s hands,” Walker told the House.

“She carried the baby to term. The little girl plays in my house every day. She even calls me Grandpa. The doctor was wrong. All the information was wrong. She trusted her God, as I would trust my God today.”

Another opponent, Delegate Nancy Guthrie, also D-Kanawha, called the ultrasound bill “a train wreck waiting to happen the moment it was introduced.”

Guthrie said the male members need to get inside the hearts and minds of pregnant women facing the abortion issue.

“These are not gleeful decisions,” she said. “There isn’t one woman who says, ‘I think I’m going to get up and have an abortion today.’ You sit, stare at walls and you cry.”

Guthrie then fired salvos at “the radical right” for pushing the bill and suggested it is steeped in hypocrisy.

“They always want us to get government off their backs, but not when it comes to this issue,” she said. “Not when it comes to telling women what to do about the medical decisions they have to make. Not when it comes to letting their loved ones die with some peace and some grace.”

However, another supporter, however, Delegate Margaret Smith, D-Lewis, said the bill in no way compromises anyone’s rights.

“This bill doesn’t violate anybody’s constitutional rights,” she said.

All it does, she said, is let a woman know she is entitled to see ultrasound images of the developing child.

“What will see she?” Smith asked. “She may see little arms and little legs. She may hear and see, after six weeks, the flutter of a little, beating heart. The heart that is alive and that may soon stop beating. Very soon. Forever.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com